Michelle Kasprzak

Michelle Kasprzak was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada and currently lives in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. She completed her BFA in New Media at Ryerson University, Toronto, Ontario in 2000, and in 2006 completed her MA in Visual and Media Arts from the Université du Québec à Montréal, earning several scholarships over the course of her academic career.

Michelle has exhibited and lectured across North America and Europe. She has appeared in publications such as Wired UK and on radio and television broadcasts on the BBC and CBC. Most recently she has delivered lectures at Nottingham Contemporary (Nottingham, UK), Mapping Festival (Geneva, CH), and Lighthouse (Brighton, UK).

Following a decade of practice as a visual artist, her current focus is primarily on writing and curating. In 2006, she was awarded a curatorial research residency at the Nordic Institute for Contemporary Art in Helsinki, Finland, in 2010 she attended the Summer Seminars for Art Curators in Yerevan, Armenia, and in 2011 was a guest of the BAM International Visitor’s Programme in Flanders.

She has written critical essays for C Magazine, Volume, Spacing, CV Photo, Public, Mute, and several online journals on a wide range of subjects in the realm of contemporary culture. Her writing has appeared in anthologies and exhibition catalogues in both Canada and Europe. From 2006-2015, Michelle was Editor-in-Chief of a leading blog on the subject of curating contemporary art, Curating.info, which was featured in the LabforCulture publication, Cultural Bloggers Interviewed.

The results of her curatorial work have appeared in venues worldwide, most recently at the 2012 ZERO1 Biennial (San Jose, US) and Cornerhouse (Manchester, UK). From 2011-2015 she was a Curator at V2_ Institute for the Unstable Media in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Michelle is currently teaching at the Willem de Kooning Academy in the Open Design Minor programme. She is also an active weightlifter with current personal records of 85 kg squat, 52.5 kg bench press, and 90 kg deadlift.

Photo by Zane Cerpina.